The Yankees Acquired JT Brubaker. Why?

by EJ Fagan

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NOTE: The following comes from EJ Fagan's substack page and is shared with permission.

Please check out EJ's substack page for more great articles.

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In the middle of all of the early season news, the Yankees announced that they acquired starting pitcher JT Brubaker from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Brubaker is recovering from Tommy John surgery in April 2023. He won’t be available for a few months at the earliest, and maybe not at all in 2024. He will earn a $2.3 million salary, so about $5 million after the luxury tax.

His 2022 profile doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence:

Brubaker has been a consistently fringy pitcher in the major leagues. He’s now arbitration-eligible, so Pittsburgh was eager to shed his salary. So what’s up? Why would the Yankees burn $5 million on a well below-average pitcher who will at most pitch half a season in 2024?

I have a theory: spin rate.

Brubaker is primarily a sinker/slider pitcher, with occasional curveballs, changeups and four-seamers. Take a look at his peers in sinker spin rate:

This is one heck of a list of great pitchers. And his slider is even better:

Wow. Cole, Stroman, Webb and Javier enter the list. When we cross players on both lists, we Brubaker and a bunch of aces: Cease, Burnes, Darvish, Musgrove, Steele, Brubaker. That’s one heck of a list!

He doesn’t throw it very often, but Brubaker also has elite spin on his curveball:

I think the Yankees are salivating over the possibility of tweaking Brubaker’s arsenal while he rehabs. He could be a monster if they find some way of translating his elite ability to spin a baseball into on-field results.

Maybe the Yankees will need a 5th starter in September, but that possibility isn’t worth $5 million. I think that the Yankees are going to slow walk Brubaker’s and try to Blake him. They’re flexing a little financial muscle to get there, but they must have a plan. Watch out for Brubaker in 2025.